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Deaf Person of the Month

Keith Worek

World Deaf Gold Senior Champion

The twelfth World Deaf Golf Championships were held at the Carton House Golf Club, Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland, July 24-27. 114 golfers from 18 countries participated. Keith Worek of Rochester, NY won the senior men's championship.

An electrical engineer working for a government contractor, he’s a veteran golfer, but not the boastful sort.

He began golfing when he was around 11; his father took him to the courses. He gave it up when he was 15, because none of his friends played, becoming a “star player” in a summer baseball league and at New Jersey (Marie Katzenbach) School for the Deaf in Trenton. He also excelled in softball.

Finally, whe he was 29, having learned that Rochester hosted a Deaf Golf League, he began golfing again, but more seriously. “Of course, it took a while to learn and improve your game. Golf is not like other sports; it’s something you must focus on and practice often.”

In 2014, he almost won the WDGC. (He served as president from 2006 to 2017.) Tied with a Canadian player for first place, he lost to him in the first hole. “Well, that's part of the game.”

The last time a U.S. player took home the handsome silver Senior trophy was in 2006. Worek told us that he felt the pressure but performed well, as did his teammates. He had a fine time at Carton House, enjoyed the exposure to Irish Sign Language (which is related to LSF, since the first Irish school for the deaf was founded as a French National Institute satellite school

The WDGC is a biennial event. The 13th WDGC, marking its 25th anniversary, is being held in Warwckshire, UK, in 2020. Keith Worek plans to be there.